Lawmakers protect home turf from sequester

In some lawmakers’ minds, there’s no stopping the sequester. So they’re making a plea to the Obama administration: Just don’t cut in my backyard.

With the automatic budget cuts set to strike all aspects of the federal government March 1, members of the House and Senate are beseeching administration officials — both in private and during public hearings — to spare key programs and employment hubs back home.

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POLITICO LIVE: Sequester blame game

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) recently asked the Army Corps of Engineers’ top civilian official if she had a way to steer the looming cuts within the agency, making the case that President Barack Obama can’t boost exports by underfunding water projects along the Mississippi River. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has been huddling with top Navy officials at the Pentagon and in the Capitol about how to protect thousands of jobs at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and related contractors.

And Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) has been sounding the alarm about potential cuts to his state’s White Sands Missile Range and two national laboratories, which help manage the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

The panicked pleas from Capitol Hill offer a reminder about one big reason why Congress has failed to tame the $16.5 trillion debt: Politicians may talk a lot about tightening Washington’s belt, but they get the blame if federal pork stops flowing back home.

“I’m almost relishing the moment all these tough-talking guys say: ‘Can you help me with my base?’” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the most vocal critics of the sequester, told POLITICO.

“When it’s somebody else’s base and district, it’s good government. When it’s in your state or your backyard, it’s devastating,” he added.

While many lawmakers have been directly urging the administration to save their pet projects, others are employing an outside-in approach. During the weeklong Presidents Day recess, they tried to fire up voters to pressure Congress to strike a deal to avert the cuts.

Illinois Reps. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat, and Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, toured local defense contractor SupplyCore on Tuesday and warned of the sequester’s impact on Rockford. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) put his national anti-sequester tour on hold, instead taking his message to local town halls in Green Valley, Sun Lakes and Phoenix this week.

For months, the retired Navy pilot has argued broadly that the across-the-board cuts would cripple the nation’s defense capabilities, but McCain mentioned one specific: “They make the Apache helicopter in Mesa, Ariz. If they cut back, it would have to be affected there.”

In all, 1,200 budget accounts across the government would be hit by the sequester if no deal is reached by the March deadline. Office of Management and Budget Controller Danny Werfel testified on Valentine’s Day that the cuts would be implemented “equally” across all programs, projects and activities within each of those accounts.

But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from trying to figure out if agencies have any wiggle room on how to enact the cuts. At a recent hearing on Capitol Hill, Wicker warned that cuts to the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, which manages inland waterways and flood risks, would harm the local economy and pose a safety threat.

He pressed Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, about whether she could send a request “upstream in the bureaucracy” for more flexibility in carrying out cuts to the Army Corps.